this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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Sharing Plex data between seperate installations? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/linux
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Hey guys, I switched to Bazzite about 5 months ago, but I currently have two seperate 2TB SSDs, one has Bazzite and the other still has my old Windows 11 install. I recently bought a 1TB SSD so that I can migrate Windows to the 1TB SSD and have two Linux distros installed at the same time on my two 2TB SSDs. I'm going to use BTRFS for both installations so I don't think I should have any problems accessing files between the seperate installations. I'm gonna keep one of the SSDs for Bazzite, and on the other I want to install CachyOS. I'm almost ready to wipe my old Windows 11 install off my 2TB SSD, I've made a fresh (debloated) Windows install on my 1TB SSD and copied over the stuff I care about keeping, so I'll soon be able to put a Linux distro on my 2TB SSD that's about to freed up.

One of my main concerns is being able to share Plex watch history/data between the 2 seperate distros, I currently run Plex media server in a Debian distrobox and I'd like to have both my Linux installations to share the same Plex data so I don't have seperate watch history etc when I switch between distros. How do I go about having 2 distros share the same Plex data? I've tried searching but I can't quite find the right answer as to where my Plex media server data is while installed through distrobox.

I'm open to migrating my Plex media server data to something else if that's the optimal way to go, but I'd prefer being able to just install a Debian distrobox instance on CachyOS, and then sharing that same data with my current Bazzite Debian distrobox instance so that no matter which OS I'm booted into, I have my watch history being updated and shared between the 2 OS'.

TLDR, how to I access Plex through two seperate Linux installations while keeping my watch history? I want to be able to boot into either CachyOS or Bazzite and have them both share the same Plex history and data. I currently run Plex media server through a Debian distrobox install on Bazzite and I want CachyOS to share the same Plex data.

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help!

Edit: Where is my Plex data when it's installed through a Debian distrobox anyways? I've searched but I can't find the right answer. Where and how would I even point a new Debian distrobox install to my current Plex data?

Edit 2: I have a 12TB HDD that contains all my TV shows and movies, and I know how to access it through all my different OS' but I want to keep the same watch history across two seperate Linux insallations. My current Plex media server installaion is running in a Debian distrobox in Bazzite, and I want to share that same data with a new installation of CachyOS or any other Linux distro that I choose to install. How do I do that?

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[โ€“] tux7350 3 points 2 months ago

Running Plex in a docker container will be your best bet. After installing docker you can run a docker compose file that has your /config folder mapped to a separate location. Here is a sample compose file from the linuxserver.io group, which I highly recommend.

***
services:
  plex:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - VERSION=docker
      - PLEX_CLAIM= #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/plex/library:/config
      - /path/to/tvseries:/tv
      - /path/to/movies:/movies
    restart: unless-stopped

Pay special attention to the section marked "volumes" you'll see the first line is a mapping for the plex config from the host to inside the container. The left side of the ":" is the path as the host sees it, the right side is from inside the container. You can use this compose file in each installation of linux to share your config and watch history as plex will always find it in the /config folder. That's the beauty of containerization!

That being said I wouldn't run two containers at the same time. That could have unintended consequences as each may try to write to the same file at the same time. As long as only one instance of plex is using the config at a time you'll be alright. You can find more info about the compose file here!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! ๐Ÿ˜